First published 2001
Saleh Omar arrives as a refugee in an English seaside town, carrying secrets from his past in Zanzibar. He encounters Latif Mahmud, a university lecturer whose own history intertwines with Omar's in unexpected ways. Their meeting awakens memories of passion and treachery that shaped both men decades earlier. Omar remembers the woman who came between them, the choices that led to his exile, and the price of survival in a world where loyalty shifts like sand. As their shared past emerges, both men must confront what they sacrificed and what they gained. The story moves between England's gray shores and the spice-scented streets of East Africa, revealing how love can become possession and how the search for safety can demand terrible compromises.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, african-literature, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: East Africa, England, Zanzibar
Period: 20th-century
Hardcover · Bloomsbury